zombiesrunfandomcom-20200214-history
Horseplay
Out on a run to get vital Halloween supplies, is that the sounds of clip-clopping hooves you hear? Probably not, right? Cast * Sam Yao * Jody Marsh Plot Monster Mash New Canton are sending a group of their children over through the safe area to do some trick or treating! Runner Five Sam fills you in on your job today - collecting apples for apple bobbing. A noise spooks Jody, but Sam can't spot anything on the scanners. Headless Zombie Jody relays the story of the Headless Zombie, a jockey who turned zom as he was riding in a race. Big As A Horse As you head back to Abel, Jody spots a dark shape in the trees. It's as big as a horse. You try to sneak round it. It's Him! It looks like you've lost the horseman, but in the midst of a terrible horse pun from Sam, he reappears right beside Jody. Back! Sam cautions you that you're heading away from Abel, and that you should sneak around back the way you came. Light Snack Jody comes up with a plan - drop all your apples. Sam is skeptical at first, but you soon hear the sound of the horse stopping for a light snack. Big Cat Sam lets you know that you're clear of the horseman, leading Jody to tell the story of a big cat that escaped a nearby zoo during the outbreak... Transcript SAM YAO: Runner Four, ready? Runner Five, ready? Raise the gates. siren, gates raising JODY MARSH: Sam, are you sure you should be sending us out on a run so late? The sun’s nearly set. It’ll be dark out here soon. SAM YAO: Nah, you’re only going as far as that old apple orchard halfway between Abel and New Canton. You’ll be there and back in no time! And you won’t even have to leave the Fraternal Alliance’s new secure corridor to do it. JODY MARSH: About that corridor, are they really sure it - SAM YAO: Totally safe. I mean, can you believe it? One of the Permanent Advisory Council guys radioed in earlier. He said there hasn’t been so much as a single zom spotted inside the perimeter since Tuesday. It’s not like New Canton’d send all their children all the way over for trick-or-treating if they thought they might get eaten on the way. I mean, they do things a little differently over there, but I don’t think – I mean, that seems pretty grim, even for them. JODY MARSH: If you’re sure it’s safe, I guess it isn’t too far to run. SAM YAO: See? That’s the Halloween spirit! But you’d better get moving. Those New Canton trick-or-treaters are due to be here in about an hour, and if you don’t get back before then, you’ll miss Runner Three doing the Monster Mash. SAM YAO: You’re making nice time out there, guys. And those costumes are – I didn’t get a good look at what you were wearing before you left. That’s some nice work, Five. It’s amazing what you can do with a few old rags and some spare chicken wire when you put your mind to it, isn’t it? JODY MARSH: What about mine? SAM YAO: Well, yours is – um, well, it’s nice, too. JODY MARSH: You don’t know what I am, do you? SAM YAO: No, I do! It’s, uh… You’re, um… JODY MARSH: I’m Runner Five! SAM YAO: Oh! Oh, I can see it, now! That’s why you’re wearing the - JODY MARSH: Exactly! SAM YAO: And all the sports bras! Nice touch! She’s really got you there, Five. Right, the orchard’s just coming up on your left just now. Watch your footing, okay? Don’t want either of you getting hurt because of some stupid root. JODY MARSH: What are we looking for, Sam? SAM YAO: Well, there should be sacks of apples under some of the trees. A field team picked up more than they could carry back this afternoon. They brought enough home with them for the New Canton children to apple bob, so we didn’t worry about getting the rest in before sundown. JODY MARSH: Was that before Runner Nine and Eleven started competing to see how many apples they could eat? SAM YAO: laughs Yeah. And um, someone might have spilled an entire basket of them trying to carry them over to the fountain by the farmhouse. JODY MARSH: That doesn’t seem so bad. SAM YAO: Yeah, well, whoever it was spilled them into the chicken coop. JODY MARSH: Oh. SAM YAO: Um, Janine suggested we hand out bits of scrap metal and some safety matches, but now we’ve got this security setup, this seemed like it might be a little bit more popular with the trick-or-treaters. Fill up your packs with as many apples as you can carry, and then head back. JODY MARSH: I can see the baskets. Come on, Five. snaps Did you hear something? SAM YAO: There’s nothing on the scanners. JODY MARSH: I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Let’s just get this over with, Five, and fast. rustles caws SAM YAO: I’m telling you, there’s no sign of anything. The nearest zombie activity is miles and miles away from you two. JODY MARSH: What if it’s not the zombies? SAM YAO: Oh, don’t tell me you’re worried about ghosts, now. JODY MARSH: I’m not! Well… YAO sighs New Canton Runner Seventy-eight told me there are things that roam these orchards at night. SAM YAO: Things like zombies? JODY MARSH: Worse things! SAM YAO: I don’t think it actually gets worse than that. JODY MARSH: That’s because you’ve never heard of the Headless Zombie. SAM YAO: snorts The what? JODY MARSH: When the moon is full, the Headless Zombie rides out across the fields, searching, always searching, his soul in eternal torment. SAM YAO: You mean it’s got a horse? Now there’s something I’m glad we don’t see every day. JODY MARSH: They say he was a jockey once. Runner One One Seven at New Canton told me he heard he’d won two thirds of the Triple Crown the year before the outbreak. He was at the starting gate, waiting to begin a race, when one of the trainers took a bite out of his arm. By the time he was halfway around the track, he’d started to turn! They say you could hear him coughing up in the stands, big awful wet hacking. But his horse just kept running. Ended up winning the whole race, only he ate two of the prize presenters instead of collecting the trophy. SAM YAO: Uh, what happened to his head? JODY MARSH: Two of the other jockeys found some razor wire and stretched it across the track. The next time he went around – sound of wire beheading But even with his head gone, he kept on riding. They say his connection to his horse was so strong, he didn’t need a brain of his own! SAM YAO: And now he roams the countryside, searching for his lost head, doomed to wander forever. JODY MARSH: Yeah! Oh, Sam, I think we’ve collected enough apples. Can we come home, now? SAM YAO: What, scared you’re going to start hearing the beating of demonic hooves? The snorting and stamping of a beast from beyond the grave? Oh, or maybe a - whinnies Um, guys? JODY MARSH: Yeah? SAM YAO: Maybe you should leave. Now. JODY MARSH: I told you this was a bad idea! SAM YAO: Look, whatever that was, it sounded like it was coming from behind you. If you keep running towards Abel, you’ll be - JODY MARSH: I can see something moving! Five, do you see that? SAM YAO: Where? JODY MARSH: Up ahead, through the trees. It’s some sort of great black shape. SAM YAO: There’s still nothing on the scanner. Maybe if I focus the camera in closer. JODY MARSH: How can you miss it? It’s as big as a… horse. It’s as big as a horse. I think we can go around it. If we just stay out of its way, it won’t even know it’s us. We can stick to the shadows, take the long way back. snaps Shh! Not there, over here. If we head down this way, it shouldn’t even see us. Follow me, Five. SAM YAO: Runner Four, Runner Five, have you still got eyes on that, uh, thing? JODY MARSH: I’m not sure. I can’t see it. Maybe we lost it. SAM YAO: Good. Good. It was probably just a trick of the light. I mean, I’ve seen some weird things, but a zombie on a horse is pretty far-fetched. You two can head back towards the township now. Those trick-or-treaters’ll be chomping at the bit. JODY MARSH: Sam? SAM YAO: What? Oh, “chomping at the bit”, like horses. I get it, it’s a pun. JODY MARSH: No, not that. I can still hear something. SAM YAO: Well, if it makes you feel better, I can look at the cameras again. Nothing ahead of you, nothing behind you, and to your left it looks like there’s more – oh. Maybe um, maybe don’t look to your left. MARSH shouts I told you not to look! JODY MARSH: Go, Five, go! It’s him! SAM YAO: You’re going the wrong way! You’ve got to head back towards Abel! JODY MARSH: All we want to do is get away from that thing. SAM YAO: Oh, it’s not that bad! I mean, as far as zombies go, a headless one is the best kind, isn’t it? It’s not like he can take a bite out of you. So long as you don’t get close enough for the horse to kick you, you’re probably alright. JODY MARSH: He’s got a scythe, Sam. So he can sweep the heads off the bodies of the living and use them as replacements for his own lost skull! SAM YAO: Where do you even get a scythe these days? JODY MARSH: Sam! SAM YAO: Maybe we can sneak you around it, again. I mean, you did kind of scream at it, but it seemed like your plan of being really really quiet and staying out of its way was kind of working before that. rustles JODY MARSH: There’s something up ahead! SAM YAO: Back the way you came. Back! Now! rustles, horse whinnies and gallops beats SAM YAO: No, go right! Go right! JODY MARSH: It’s gaining on us, Sam. Once we’re on open ground, it’ll catch up to us in no time! Zombie unsheathes scythe SAM YAO: Five, watch out for that – oh, just duck! Duck now! whooshes through the air Dammit! I mean, why does a headless jockey even know how to use a scythe? JODY MARSH: We need to distract the horse. He can’t follow us if it’s not moving. SAM YAO: Good, because I like you both with your heads where they are. Um, how are we going to distract it? JODY MARSH: Five, empty your pack. I’ll do the same. SAM YAO: Wait, you think an evil undead zombie demon horse is going to just stop for a light snack when there are – whinnies, apples crunch Oh, what do you know. JODY MARSH: Let’s get out of here while we can. SAM YAO: Looks like you’re in the clear. Whatever that thing was, it’s not showing up on any of the cameras now. Neither are those apples. You know, I sort of figured an evil undead zombie demon horse would just eat brains, like all the other zombies. JODY MARSH: It wasn’t a zombie horse. SAM YAO: It – no? JODY MARSH: Whoever heard of an undead horse, Sam? That’s just silly! SAM YAO: Right. Of course. JODY MARSH: And anyway, I heard from one of the Dogville runners that the only zombie animal in the area is one of the big cats that escaped from the local zoo just after the outbreak. They say it stopped - SAM YAO: Um, Jody? Maybe you should wait until you’re back at home to tell us that one? JODY MARSH: Don’t worry, Sam. No one’s ever seen it this far away from the old butcher’s shop on - cat growls Maybe that story can wait. SAM YAO: Yeah, good call. You know, now I get another look at it, I wonder if that horse was just a horse. JODY MARSH: We’ve got no way to know that. SAM YAO: Yeah. Come on home, and um, maybe be quick about it, just in case.Category:Side Mission Category:Season Two